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Christie says residents should 'get together' to decide on buyouts in Sandy-ravaged towns

Christie announces $300M to buy out flood-prone homes Speaking to a packed town hall in Sayreville on Thursday, Gov. Chris Christie announced the state will start purchasing homes in flood-prone areas starting in July with $300 million in federal aid. The first round of buyouts will target about 1,000 homes affected by Sandy and another 350 in Sayreville, South River and Cumberland County’s Lawrence Township . (Video by Michael Monday/The Star-Ledger)

View full sizeGov. Chris Christie on Tuesday gave Prince Harry a tour of Sandy's destruction and the state's rebuilding efforts. Today, he held a town hall in Sayreville, another hard-hit community.Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger

That’s Gov. Chris Christie 's advice for residents trying to convince their neighbors to participate in a federal buyout of homes in areas swamped by Sandy and past storms.

“Invite those families over,” Christie said today at a town hall at Saint Stanislaus Kostka School. “Use the gentle persuasion that New Jerseyans are known for all across America.”

The governor said the first wave of $300 million will be used to purchase homes in Sayreville and South River in Middlesex County, Lawrence Township in Cumberland County as well as towns in Ocean and Monmouth counties and the Passaic River Basin. Another wave of money will follow, to include Woodbridge and other towns.

“You all need to get together as a neighborhood and say we’re ready to go,” Christie said.

However, the approach is complicated, especially for the 50 or so homes on Weber Avenue, which was devastated by the Oct. 29 hurricane.

“If we don’t bring everyone around, we’re going go to have a decision to make,” Christie said. “I can’t guarantee you what the tipping point is, but I don’t want you to walk away from here thinking that one or two people could screw it up.”

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The state Department of Environmental Protection will administer the federal dollars and assign special “buyout teams” to the project.

Christie set the following timetable for the program: Appraisals and title work will start in June. The state will make offers to willing homeowners in July. The first closings will happen by Labor Day, and all of the closings will be complete by next spring. Homes will be demolished with the land maintained as open space.

“So within a year of now, everything will be done,” Christie said.

The event tapped into the emotion people of Sayreville and other communities have felt over the past six months.

One woman cried as she admitted bankruptcy could be her only option, after the storm led the bank to foreclose on her second home.

Another asked Christie to expedite the process “because I can't live with my mother anymore."

And Christie said in the days after the storm when he visited Sayreville during a chopper tour of damage, people pleaded with him: "Get us out of here. We can't take it anymore.”